Death of Anwar al-Awlaki
Anwar al-Awlaki was an American-born Muslim cleric known for his radical views and leadership role within Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. He was implicated in various terrorist plots against the United States, advocating through his online sermons for American Muslims to engage in jihad. In September 2011, al-Awlaki was killed by a CIA drone strike in Yemen, making him the first American citizen intentionally targeted by the U.S. government for assassination without a judicial process. This event sparked significant debate over the legality and ethics of such actions, particularly regarding the Fifth Amendment rights of American citizens. Critics argued that his death set a troubling precedent, while government officials defended the strike as a necessary action against a combatant in an ongoing conflict. Al-Awlaki's involvement in major attacks, including the attempted Christmas Day bombing in 2009 and the Fort Hood shootings, underscored his controversial status. The legal framework supporting this drone strike remains contentious, with discussions around executive orders and the balance between national security and civil liberties continuing in the wake of his death.
On this Page
Subject Terms
Death of Anwar al-Awlaki
Summary: Anwar al-Awlaki was a radical, American-born Muslim cleric and an influential leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Awlaki had been linked to at least three terrorist plots or attacks on the United States, and he distributed speeches via the Internet urging American Muslims to join a jihad against the United States. In September 2011, he was killed in Yemen by a missile fired by a CIA drone. His death has raised anew the issue of whether the President had the authority to order the death of an American citizen without a judicial proceeding. Civil libertarians, among others, have protested that the Fifth Amendment gave Awlaki, as an American citizen, the right to a trial. The U.S. government has countered that Awlaki was a leading member of a regional affiliate of Al Qaeda, which is at war with the U.S., and thereby he was a legitimate target. Awlaki was not the first American citizen killed by an American raid, but he was the first to be intentionally targeted. The U.S. government has not yet officially acknowledged its role in the missile strike that killed Awlaki.
Key events:
- December 24, 2009: With approval of the president, the United States attacks a compound in Yemen where Awlaki is thought to be meeting with other Al Qaeda leaders; he is not among those killed. Awlaki's name is later added to short "kill lists" of terrorists whom the military and/or CIA are authorized to assassinate.
- March 25, 2010: State Department legal adviser Harold Hongju Koh declares in a http://www.state.gov/s/l/releases/remarks/139119.htm to the American Society of International Law that "a state that is engaged in an armed conflict or in legitimate self-defense is not required to provide targets with legal process before the state may use lethal force."
- December 2010: Federal Judge John Bates dismisses a lawsuit filed by the American Civil Liberties Union and the Center for Constitutional Rights on behalf of Anwar Awlaki's father, Nasser Awlaki, challenging the right of the government to order the assassination of his son, an American citizen, without a trial. The judge rules that the plaintiffs have no standing in the case, and that it should have been filed by Mr. Awlaki himself.
- September 30, 2011: A missile fired from a CIA-controlled drone over Yemen killes Awlaki and a second American citizen, Samir Khan. Khan had edited the online English-language magazine Inspire.
In-Depth Background
The son of a Yemeni, Anwar al-Awlaki was born in New Mexico in 1971. A radical Muslim cleric and leader of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, Awlaki preached at mosques in San Diego and Washington, D.C. Awlaki also the Internet to distribute written and spoken diatribes that encouraged Muslims to join jihad against the United States; his name was placed on "capture or kill" lists maintained by the CIA and Defense Department. Awlaki's list of suspected activities includes helping to plan the attempted Christmas 2009 bombing of a Northwest Airlines plane; advising the Army officer responsible for the November 2009 Fort Hood shootings; and influencing the attempted Times Square bomber in May 2010.
In September 2011, Awlaki was killed in Yemen by a missile fired by a CIA drone. His death has drawn controversy over whether the President has the authority to order the death of an American citizen without a judicial proceeding. To provide legal justification for the targeted drone attack, the Obama administration relied on a secret legal memo written in 2010. The memo stated that such killings are justified if it is impossible to capture the target and if the target is fighting on behalf of an enemy of the United States - in Awlaki's case, he was fighting on behalf of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Nonetheless, critics have argues that Awlaki's assassination violates the Fifth Amendment to the Constitution.
The Fifth Amendment is not the only legal issue to have been raised. In 1976, President Gerald Ford issued http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/760110e.htm in response to Senate investigations of a series of assassination attempts against Cuba's Fidel Castro and Chile's Salvador Allende, among others. The order effectively limits the extent of intelligence activities aimed at U.S. citizens abroad, stating: "No employee of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, political assassination."
Subsequent American presidents have renewed the original Order. In 1976, President Jimmy Carter issued Executive Order 12036, which built on Ford's order to prohibit the indirect participation in assassination. In 1981, President Ronald Reagan issued Executive Order 12333, which revoked Carter's order but included a provision that "no person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination." In the wake of the September 11 terrorist attacks, however, President George W. Bush relied on legal interpretations of earlier Executive Orders to conclude that it is lawful to target and kill individual terrorists by means of covert intelligence operations.
Bibliography
Reagan, Ronald. "http://www.archives.gov/federal-register/codification/executive-order/12333.html--UnitedStatesintelligenceActivities." December 4, 1981.
Ford, Gerald. "http://www.ford.utexas.edu/library/speeches/760110e.htm.UnitedStatesintelligenceActivities" February 23, 1976.
Gellman, Barton. "http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A63203-2001Oct27." Washington Post. October 28, 2001.